I Hate to Say It, But,

[3KillerBs]

Perhaps Rameses could be verbally presented with the above positive outcome as to engage his faculties of logic. I once tried this with my rooster:
View attachment 3374519
(Not really, though. He was just being nosey about the manual binder)

It's probably worth a try.

 

[SmiYa0126]

This guy is a huge blue laced silver Wyandotte. Was watching him yesterday, his back must be a foot wide. I have no idea what he weighs but I can just get my arm around him good. He is stocky.


This may be my plan too.

Wow! I thought my rooster was big, mine is half my height! A total mutt, Easter egger mixed with Columbian mix.

 

[fuzzi]

Way back when...my bantam rooster Ping got full of himself one day. I grabbed him by the tail, elevated him, and looked him in the face. I probably scolded him, don't recall, was a long time ago.

He was a good rooster from that day on.

 

[3KillerBs]

Rameses walked out past me this morning without taking any more notice of me than he used to and yielded when I walked through him moving feed and water.

I'm not turning my back on him and I'm not having other family members in the coop again yet, but he seems to have come to his senses.

 

[Sally PB]

Rameses walked out past me this morning without taking any more notice of me than he used to and yielded when I walked through him moving feed and water.

I'm not turning my back on him and I'm not having other family members in the coop again yet, but he seems to have come to his senses.

VERY glad to hear this!

 

[3KillerBs]

As of today I haven't had any further issues.

I'm starting to wonder if they had a predator scare while I was at work one day.

It used to be that when I was opening up for the day before it was really light Rameses would stay up on the roost. Since the day of the issue, he's been flying down as soon as he hears me and refusing to let hens out into the run in the dark -- even chasing them back in if they went out.

This morning he jumped down off the roost when he heard me and then, when I went in so he was sure it was just me, went back to roost instead of patrolling the door.

I wonder if, in his limited chicken mind, the original crowding and even pecking behavior was his way to trying to get me to go into the safety of the coop instead of being out in the dangerous dark?

I had to turn my back on him a few times while working in the coop yesterday and he didn't do anything but continue to scratch in the straw I'd dropped while refilling the nests.

If the good behavior holds until the end of the month I'll let my husband and teens help with chores again.

 

[Sally PB]

I wonder if, in his limited chicken mind, the original crowding and even pecking behavior was his way to trying to get me to go into the safety of the coop instead of being out in the dangerous dark?

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe anthropomorphic, but I tend to do that.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

As of today I haven't had any further issues.

I'm starting to wonder if they had a predator scare while I was at work one day.

It used to be that when I was opening up for the day before it was really light Rameses would stay up on the roost. Since the day of the issue, he's been flying down as soon as he hears me and refusing to let hens out into the run in the dark -- even chasing them back in if they went out.

This morning he jumped down off the roost when he heard me and then, when I went in so he was sure it was just me, went back to roost instead of patrolling the door.

I wonder if, in his limited chicken mind, the original crowding and even pecking behavior was his way to trying to get me to go into the safety of the coop instead of being out in the dangerous dark?

I had to turn my back on him a few times while working in the coop yesterday and he didn't do anything but continue to scratch in the straw I'd dropped while refilling the nests.

If the good behavior holds until the end of the month I'll let my husband and teens help with chores again.

That's a good consideration. Have you noticed any tracks nearby that might show what animal it could have been?

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Glad to hear this. Time will tell if your theory of predator scare is correct, but it makes sense given his behavior change and departure from normal dawn routine.
He was pecking at the back of your boot—as if to say, move inside Giant Bringer of Food; The ladies expect breakfast in bed or else I get cut off.

 

[3KillerBs]

That's a good consideration. Have you noticed any tracks nearby that might show what animal it could have been?

The ground in that area wouldn't show tracks.

We always have hawks but if it was a predator in the dark it might have been an owl frightening them. We hear owls all the time.